Day 1: Aridia
de Mon Castle Grounds

"I understand, sir. And yes, I believe I can handle that especially with some assistants at the beginning." With that, Christopher gave a salute to the majordomo and proceeded to his post.

---------

Finally! At least they allow for smoking breaks... It had been roughly two hours since Chris had started his "job", which at first was going smoothly. Though, after the third wave of refugees, the repetition of proceeders had officially gotten on the bounty hunters nerves. Also, not being able to blow a hole in the jerks that tried to manipulate him was a real letdown.

The crowds were starting to die down, so Christopher had left Hank at the check-in point while he went off to smoke... and scout out the place. The de Mon castle was quite impressive, everything a castle should be: impressive, strong and ominous. Now, where would the kitchen be, I wonder.

A few minutes later, Christopher was sitting behind the castle with his back against one of the walls. It had taken him a bit to find the kitchen, though when he had, it only took a little flirting with one of the young maids to acquire a sandwich and a bottle of drink. After taking another swig from the bottle, Chris reached into his jacket pockets and produced a lighter and a half empty pack of cigarettes.

"I need to get some more of these..." the bounty hunter half mumbled as he lit the cigarette in is mouth, taking a deep drag and exhaling a long puff of smoke into the afternoon air.

— Day 1 —
Palisade National Park
Near Parksville, Erbaine
Previous Post

“Sweetheart, can you play with Candy for a little while? Your Daddy and I want to sort out our camping stuff.”

“I wanna help.”

“You can a little later, once we get the bigger things sorted, all right? In the meantime, please stay close and watch for animals and people.”

“Okay.”

Dan smiled at this exchange; one benefit of Grace being an only child was that she could keep herself amused, not requiring lots of playmates to pass the time. Both parents kept a wary eye on her while they worked, though they were confident Candy would help keep their daughter in line. After all, corgis were excellent herding dogs and quite protective of their charges.

The couple sorted out their gear into several piles, yes, no, and maybe, depending on how useful – and portable – each item might be for their trip back to Parksville. Dan mused that their opinions on each piece of gear were quite different now than they would have been just hours before. Some items, such as an emergency weather radio, were once quite practical but essentially useless now. Others, such as a water purifier filter, had been given almost as gag gifts – campgrounds nearly always had drinkable water – but might be quite helpful on a long walk home. Yet other things, such as their camp stove, still worked but really weren’t portable. These questionable items went into the maybe pile; what happened to them would be decided later.

They were almost done with this task when Grace came running up, a hand outstretched. “Here, hold this for me, Daddy,” she said, dropping a small cloth pouch into his hand, before skipping off again.

“What’s this?” he wondered aloud as he looked inside. Several brightly colored dice were all that the bag contained.

“Oh that?” Angie replied. “It’s a dice game from a friend at school. She was playing with that earlier today, but I guess she got bored with it.”

Just outside of Abyssal - Day 1 - Pre-Supernova - 11: 27 AM

Jared stopped his dune buggy just outside of the town, and then grabbed his gear after hopping out “This is ShadowBomb calling Birdseye, what are the defensive positions around the mine?” he said, lifting his SAW's carrying strap onto his shoulders.

Cameron called back “Nothing much, one machine gun nest, a few barb wire emplacements, and a chain link fence. I can take out the nest for yall, if you want” Jared nodded “Commander?” knowing that he was listening in.

-Day 1-
Capitol University
Judicia, Erbaine
During the Supernova

The sudden quiet after the bursts of energy and the explosions was nearly deafening. Grey light filtered in under the metal beams where Laramie crouched, and when she took a deep breath, the air tasted stale and smoky.

Laramie heard her name whispered, along with a rustling sound, and Liam's face appeared at the entrance of her hiding spot. "Liam!" she called. "I'm here!" She scooted over to him, searching his face for any sign of an injury. "Are you alright?"

Although he was dusty and smoke-streaked, he appeared to be fine. Laramie sighed in relief, until she spotted bloodstains on the concrete under his hands. She turned one of his hands over and her eyes went wide. Shards of glass were embedded like tiny spikes all over his palm and fingers. "Liam, what were you crawling over? It looks like you punched through a window."

Unzipping her backpack to look for anything that could be used as a temporary bandage, Laramie looked up at Liam, brow furrowed in concern. "Didn't you feel it?"

Day 1-Arida-de Mon Castle Grounds

After taking a cursory walkabout to check on the refugees ("All the poor people who didn't really have decent housing in the first place", as Candi had earlier noted, although some were starting to dribble in from the Henna district, requesting shelter "from the bullets"), Candi had taken a short walk over the back property, enjoying the quiet solitude and normalcy of her lands--and her cigarette. She suddenly froze, however, her cigarette just inches from her lips, when she smelled another, and, in her opinion, inferior smoke. Someone else was obviously using a lower-grade tobacco. A few minutes of swift, quiet steps brought her around the corner and looking down at thr other smoker. She watched him for a few moments.

"Are you new around here?" she finally asked, taking a puff. She knew the answer full well, but also was interested to see what this stranger would say.

-Day 1-
Arenico, Edge of Downtown Diabolis
-Doran-
They say that hearing is the first thing to go and the last thing to come back when you are in shock. If there was ever a time to test that theory, it was when Doran awoke from his ground-induced slumber. The first thing he felt was a terrible pounding in his head, an ache in his arms and legs, and feeling in general like he had been run over by a truck.

His eyes fluttered a moment later, flicking a few times before finally opening properly and staying open. He found that half of his face was embedded in the ground, or at least residing in a depression. A long groan escaped his lips as he struggled to gain control of all of his faculties. His fingers finally began to move, and then his arms. He pulled them out of the cement and attempted to push himself off of the ground. He did so, with quite a bit of effort, and that’s when the ringing started.

His head spun and he nearly collapsed as he felt the renewed sound waves returning to his ears, assaulting him with a high pitched noise. When the ringing stopped, Doran finally managed to look around at where he had landed. He lifted his head and came nose-to-bumper with a taxi that had evidently crashed into the side of one of the skyscrapers, and nearly run him over, “Well… that was close…” he croaked out, then closed his mouth in surprise at how hoarse he sounded.

He drug himself to his knees, glancing up at the sky. All he could see was dust, and fine glittery particles of glass as they floated down through the air from being nearly atomized by the immense pressure of the wave as it came through. “What in the blazes Happened?” He said softly, more to himself than anyone around.
As he came to his feet, using the hood of the taxi for support, he finally realized what he was hearing around him… or rather what he wasn’t hearing. It was as if the normal sounds of the city were gone. No more music, no more noises of thousands of cars, vans, trucks and other forms of transportation moving along their daily paths. Replacing these sounds was what sounded like a constant wail or scream. In reality, it rose and fell, coming from many places and once, and was the sound of thousands of surprised, hurt and scared people.

From where he stood at the base of the two skyscrapers, he looked out at the street. What was normally a bustling thoroughfare was now a silent street full of cars and people. The cars were still, the people were not. He saw groups of them rushing about, people pulling others from damaged cars and looking generally confused and scared.

Doran didn’t know what had happened, but he knew that it was bad… very , very bad. He bent over to brush himself off and glimpsed something on the back of his right hand, “What?” He whispered as he brought his other hand to rub at the tattoo-like mark that now adorned his flesh. He jumped when he saw that it also marred the back of his left hand. The design was that of a moving ball with a twisting star in the center. (symbol at bottom of post )

His breathing quickened, “What is this?” he mused, then glanced up from where he had fallen. The sounds that he heard were those of chaos… and he felt a deep desire to get back up… to get a better look if he could at what was going on… perhaps to help someone…

In the distance he could see smoke rising from a fire, and there were other clouds of blackness rising elsewhere. He turned, looking up toward the buildings, trying to find a logical handhold for a first jump. With the way most of the glass was gone, he could probably get inside one of those upper floors and find a stairwell to the top… or he could try to climb the outside. He spotted a drainpipe that was anchored to the far corner of the skyscraper, and began jogging, building up momentum to jump onto the pipe and heave himself up it.

When he was close enough, he jumped… just as he normally would on any day, during any of his trips. This time, something strange happened. Instead of his normal jump, which he had practiced a million times, he felt a strange energy leave his body, his legs impacted the ground with much more force than normal, and he found himself flying through the air, nearly two stories into nothingness.

Doran was not one to scream, but in this instance, I think he can be forgiven. He at least yelled as he felt himself rocket past the intended target of the pipe, and out beyond the building toward the street on the other side. He just knew that this time he would be feeling the pain, and yet he still extended his hands to try and catch himself. His evident destination was now the hood of a police car.

Just as he was about to slam into it, he closed his eyes. A swirl of blue energy left him once more, and he felt suddenly weightless. His hands hit the car, but instead of crumpling in on himself he found himself rolling off of it and then suddenly being returned to the earth as quickly as he had felt himself loose all sense of gravity. He simply lay there, between the squad car and someone’s personal vehicle, dazed and confused… “Did I do that?” he whispered…

Day 1: Aridia
de Mon Castle Grounds

"I would suppose if you don't recognize me that I am new around here, though that's just me..." Christopher answered the woman before taking another puff of his cigarette. "But where are my manners? The names Christopher Howard, I'm one of the new arrivals to this place and currently a check-in man at the front gate." the bounty hunter continued as he stood up and dusted off is pants.

After quickly looking the younger woman over, it was obvious she was either a heiress or someone desperately trying to look like and heiress. Please let it be the first. The latter group are stuck-up wolves...

Day One
Arida
During the Supernova

As Laney trudged around the corner towards the martial arts studio, memories swirled around in her brain. They were memories of her mother.

Nearly three and a half years ago Janice Dayton had disappeared. Vanished without a trace. There had been only one clue in the case, a note addressed to Laney and left taped on her bedroom door. The case had been dropped only weeks after Janice had left.

The note had been taken, along with everything else that the police thought was important in the case. They had tried to take her too, to put her in a foster home. But Laney had resisted...

Laney continued down the street, hurrying to the studio. She squinted up at the double suns, the word vanishing echoing through her mind. That was all she could think of. Vanishing.

Her whole body tingled, the double suns heated the air around her until it was almost unbearable. Her eyes watered from staring into the direct path of the sunlight. Suddenly, her body went cold, and then the tingling was over.

Allee, she thought. I wonder how Allee is doing.

-Day 1-
Avarician Desert, A few miles west of Abyssal
- Pre Supernova – 11:27 PM -
-Sergeant Luke Granger, ShadowAce-

Luke shook his head, glancing over at Mei with a smile and a roll of his eyes, “Thanks, Birdseye… that’s what I needed to know. As for you Jared… just remember how many times I’ve saved your backside with this little peashooter.” He keyed off and laughed, steering around a collection of small rocks and back into the trail cut by Commander Bell’s vehicle.

They pulled up shortly afterward in the valley between the two dunes, out of sight of anything that the cartel would be able to throw at him. As the others got out, Luke kept his buggy idling, asking the commander, “I’ll take one of those two dunes as my high ground and give you cover, did you want me to drop ShadowDoc elsewhere? Or keep her with me?” Being the sniper, he was generally set away at a good distance from the targets. It could be to advantage to keep her with him since the high ground would also give her communications equipment maximum effective range. She was also the medic though, and might be needed with the others in case of injuries.

-Day 1-
Judicia, Erbaine
Capitol University
During the supernova

Relief surged through Liam when he heard Laramie's soft but quiet voice. He sighed with relief. "I'm fine. I'm more concerned with whether you're okay."

Shock filled his eyes when he saw the blood-stained concrete and his palms, which were now embedded with tiny pieces of glass. "What on earth?" He pulled his hands away from Laramie's to study them as she rummaged in her backpack. "I didn't feel anything!" He exclaimed. "And somehow, I feel I should be screaming in pain right now." His eyes widened. "But I'm not. Laramie, I feel fine. Well, as good as you can expect after a wide-spread disaster."

Then it hit on him like a freight train running down some tracks. Barreling out of control... just like his life. "Laramie, there's something else." He showed her his hands. "My hand... it's back."

--Day 1--
Burg

Kyle slouched on the couch in his apartment, still trying to comprehend the events of the day. Every possible thought found its way into his mind, but the one that found its way to the top the most was;

"What happens now?"

Sleep soon fell upon him, he drempt that everything he touched caught fire. He tried to get rid of it but the flames just got bigger, till finally he shot upright on the couch, awake.

In the hours since he'd been home, he had managed to find out a bit about his new "ability."

Apparently, unlike most of the comics he had read, he could not actually make fire, there had to be a source of flame for him to gain power from. Though once he came in contact with fire for a long enough period of time, he found that he could suck it up like a battery and use it whenever he pleased, and when he had "charged batteries" his hands would glow bright red, and when he ran out, they stopped.

He stood up from the couch and tried to find something else to distract him from his almost nonsensical findings that he had "super-powers."

He picked up the previous days paper and began to read;

"New type of radiation discovered!" Kyle found this to be quite boring so he turned the page nonchalantly.

"World's End is Near!" He knew that the world had certainly not ended, but it had most definitely changed, and he knew that after today, nothing would go back to normal.

Day 1-Arida-de Mon Castle Grounds

"Candice de Mon," Candi said, blowing a fine stream of smoke into the air. "But I usually just go by Candi."

She turned her head slightly to stare at Christopher from the corner of her eye, sizing him up.

"How long do you plan on staying?"

Convent

The nun stood as Allee began speaking to Xandria.

"I will let you girls figure that out on your own," she said softly, walking out the door and beginning to pull it to. "I shall be heading back to my own rooms, now."

"Goodnight!" Xandria called, then turned back to Allee. "Unfortunately, yes, we will have all the kids still, I'm afraid. Do you have any ideas? I mean, there's food and all the basics, but what do you do for an entire day with no electricity and no anything? And...oh good grief."

Xandria wrinkled her nose.

"There's no chance of anyone showering either!"

-Day 1-
Arida, the Convent

Allee smiled to the nun as she left, then stretched our her legs and leaned against the wall. "I know. This is crazy. They're all different ages and I honestly can't think of anything to keep them occupied for more than an hour." She yawned. "Not to mention there are only two of us."

"Good grief is right." Allee plugged her nose. "No showers? This is bad. Very bad."

Allee picked up her phone, and clicked a few buttons, but the screen was still black. "I wonder how I can contact Laney and my parents without electricity, since I'm stuck at the convent for now. Do you have anyone you need to get ahold of?" She looked at Xandria. "I have to wonder, did the supernova affect everything like it did us?" She paused. "I'm a bit afraid of what might be going on in the world outside..."

--Day 1--
Judicia, Erbaine
12:45 pm
Previous Post

Driving in a car without glass in the windows could possibly be construed by some people as the equal of driving in a convertible. To the psychiatrist, who was not so very optimistic, it was simply a pain. He had knocked out the last shards of glass that clung to the frame, but it was most inconvenient to not have a windshield anymore. But at least his mechanic had been able to get the car running again.

He was just reflecting on the benefits of always paying extra to have his car fixed, thereby increasing the mechanic's loyalty to himself and so granting him first rate and rapid service despite a line of other customers, when suddenly he was forced to slam on the brakes. The was a loud shrieking as the car ground to a halt and the Doctor was thrown forward into his steering wheel with such force that a few kinks in his neck popped out painfully. The youth staggering across the road didn't even seem to notice.

"Excuse me, young man!" The Doctor jerked the car door open and unfolded himself from the seat, grey eyes snapping. "Just what do you think you're doing? You could have secured for yourself an early demise!"

The young man suddenly spun around and the Doctor was slightly startled to now see the blood staining his ruined blue t-shirt, the revealed cuts beneath the cloth, the slices on his arms and face. "What do you care!?" he exploded without warning. "For all you know, I could have almost secured myself an early demise earlier today already! For all you know, I might want to secure myself an early demise! Mind your own business and leave me alone!!"

The Doctor was slightly taken aback by this outbreak, but more than surprised he was intrigued to discover the source of the overflowing anger. After all, he is a psychiatrist. "Woah there, hold on son...." he began in a soothing voice.

The youth was just turning away to move on, but at the Doctor's words, he whipped back around again with more rage in his eyes than before. "I am NOT YOUR SON!!" he roared, brown eyes nearly black with bitter passion. "Just LEAVE ME ALONE!!"

But the Doctor wasn't looking at him anymore. His gaze was fixed on the boy's clenched fist, which he had brought crashing down onto the hood of the car while he shouted. Beneath the quivering fist lay a 2 foot wide, 6 inch deep indentation in the bright red metal of the Doctor's Porsche.
After a moment's silence, the Doctor raised his eyes to meet the boy's face. The young man was breathing hard, bloodied sweat dripping down his face, his body trembling, head bowed and eyes screwed shut as though trying to get a grip on himself.
"What's your name, son?"

"I am not your son," softly snarled the youth, but he didn't look up at the Doctor and he didn't smash his other fist into the hood of the car.

"What is your name?"

"Tony..." he murmured in reply, much quieter than his previous shouting, though the raw tension in his tone was clear. "Tony Knight."

"Tony," repeated the Doctor, warmly and with a smile, rolling the notes of the name on his tongue as if it was pleasing to say. Tony looked up sharply. "Tony, son, what's wrong?"

"Wrong!?" Tony suddenly laughed, a strangely hysterical note to the sound. "Everything's wrong! My whole existence is wrong! I just left my mother's mangled body draped over the crushed dashboard of her car in the middle of a highway under a bridge! When I tried to pull her out, I found myself taking a few pieces at a time of her bloody limbs!" He had pulled back away from the car, still laughing and his eyes were beginning to look strangely glossy. "The cars around us were beginning to crash against each other, pushed out of their way by Mom's car. I couldn't stay! I couldn't help her! I couldn't do anything! I tried! I tried! I'm so sorry!! Oh God, I'm so sorry..."

The Doctor watched as Tony dropped to his knees, covered his face with blood stained hands and shook with gut wrenching sobs. He stood for a moment, watching the heartache scrawled across the bloodied body of the youth before him. He noted the broad shoulders, the powerful neck, the narrow waist and lean hips. Finally, after a few moments of letting the boy weep, he moved closer to him and laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Tony... You proceeded as best you knew how. Nothing that happened was in any way, shape or form your fault."

Tony shook his head and bowed down further, his robust shoulders hunched over as though he could hide himself under them.

"Son, I am Dr. Lance Steele and I am a psychiatrist..."

— Day 1 —
Judicia, Erbaine
Underground
The sun, an eerily ordinary image after such a day, was setting. Nightfall was coming on fast. But it would be a sleepless night for many in Azurema. Slumber would come slowly for those sick with grief, fear, and wondering, and still more would prowl the night, hiding in its shadows as they pillaged, plundered, and planned. But no one knew that an even darker development would come with the dawn.

Somewhere far beneath the grid of streets and pristine white buildings of the capitol, a top secret meeting was being held in a yawning, fortified bunker hundreds of feet below the surface of the earth. Only the most important and influential men and women were there—the governors of the three provinces, the top scientists, the secretary of war. They were gathered around a long table in a dimly lit room, waiting.

The minutes crawled, and the political figures began whispering among themselves.

"What is going to be done?"

"Azurema is in shambles!"

"The government's gamble may well be the end of this nation."

The last whisper was just a little loud, a little too subversive, and the others knew it and fell abruptly silent. At the end of the table, a leather chair turned with an ominous squeak, revealing none other than President Wentworth.

His face was impassive and his eyes were cold, but the rigid clench of his jaw indicated anger.

"Gamble?" The president said casually. "Only telling the government what it wants to hear hardly stacks the deck in Azurema's favor."

The elderly scientist who had whispered the incendiary words was now glaring at the most powerful man in Azurema.

"The government only listening to what it wants to hear leaves all of Azurema at an impasse," he snarled, unable to contain his anger about the misjudgment of the distant supernova any longer.

The president glanced at two men in black standing by the wall, and the scientist was ushered out of the room without another word.

"Now, those of you who would prefer to carry on like frightened citizens, gossiping and theorizing and conspiring, please go ahead and leave," the president said icily. Nobody moved. "Excellent. Let us begin the briefing, and see what can be done to keep this country under control. Assessment of damage, please."

A younger scientist stepped forward, clearly nervous, but managing to keep his voice steady.

"The reports have been far and few between, but the damage seems to vary wildly throughout Azurema. The entire nation is littered with strange phenomenon, anomalies. . ." The scientist trailed off. "From a sciencific perspective, I cannot begin to explain or comprehend it. Some areas have been completely decimated from what appears to have been pressure and earthquakes. Some others show no signs of disaster. One square mile might look as though it had been hit with a bomb. . . and the next mile over appears perfectly normal, aside from being without power. And that, in and of itself, is trouble enough."

"And the state of the power grids?" The president asked, his cold gray eyes flickering to an engineer standing in the corner, who stepped forward.

"The best scientists and engineers are now working around the clock to revive them," the man said, but his face was grim. "The prognosis, however, is not good. For lack of more sophisticated terminology, the grids are fried."

"There is nothing else to be done, then, for the time being," the president said, nodding to the secretary of war, a woman with a cold, calculating face and fiery eyes. "Martial law is in effect as of now. Do whatever it takes to keep Azurema under control and respecting the government's authority, because surely in this time of crisis, the only way this nation shall survive is by—"

"Sir?" The scientist started anxiously, and then looked horrified that he had interrupted the president.

Wentworth inclined his head ever so slightly in the younger man's direction. The scientist took that as a sign to speak, and hurriedly began.

"I was not able to finish what I had," he said quickly. "About the damage assessment, I mean. There have been many reports coming in from across the country. . . many of them detailing very, very strange phenomena in the wake of this disaster. Normally, I would write them off as hysteria, but there are too many, and. . ."

The scientist cleared his throat.

"We have yet to confirm the possibility of residual radiation, and have no idea what humanity was subjected to during the two minutes when the supernova was at its strongest. But the evidence does not look good."

"Evidence?"

"Mutation."

"Mutation," the president repeated. "Are you trying to tell me that some of my citizens have been turned into giant frogs? I must say, I've yet to see any hopping around the capitol."

A few people laughed, and the president added, his mouth twitching, "Even if that were the case, mutants can be locked up if they are a danger to society, or, if necessary, disposed of."

"It's not that simple," the young scientist said, his face very pale. "It's not that kind of mutation. And they pose a real threat to the power of this government."

The president's brows raised ever so slightly, and he narrowed his eyes. That last bit captured his attention, and the young scientist knew it.

He turned to the door, which was flanked by two guards.

"Bring him in, Steele."